Does a dry powder fire extinguisher work on lithium batteries？

Recently, there is a fire event in the United States with Tesla ModelX. The driver died in the accident. When everyone is looking for the reason of the accident, here is a problem:

Why don't electric fire easily destroyed?

Accident on the same day, the firemen arrived the fire process is very slow, fire is also very long. In line with the more and more domestic electric car owners responsible attitude, I specially studied.

The reason and on fire lithium battery pack related. Under the instantaneous collision, destroyed the stability of the battery, causing the internal thermal runaway, a rapid release of internal heat cause the burning of the electrolyte, of course this is just a guess, all need to wait for thespecial officially released the results of the survey.

But the problem is that tesla's battery management system (BMS) has always been considered very outstanding, on ensure the safety of the battery capacity is very good. If there is something wrong with it, then so many other brands of electric vehicles how to deal with?

What is the tesla use lithium battery？

Tesla not using cascading lithium ion batteries(most electric vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf and general Volt USES this kind of lithium battery), but 18650 battery.

Maybe everybody is a stranger to the battery, but you know, this kind of battery is most consumer electronics products can choose the battery. Maybe your home all can charge stuff with the battery. By the way, the use of this battery charging treasure is your hand.

So what circumstance fire broke out in the lithium battery will be?

The ministry of public security fire research institute of Tianjin have done a research on lithium ion battery fire risk, the research object is 18650 battery. The test results show that the 18650 battery spontaneous combustion temperature of about 170 degrees Celsius, exothermic under the condition of short circuit, time duration, the possibility of fire; Single lithium ion battery can spark the adjacent cells after combustion, thus forming a chain combustion reaction in the battery pack.

And crucially, lithium battery fire could not be used dry powder fire extinguisher, must use of water. And to put out the fire with water, and encounter is the fire of the high-voltage battery pack, is bound to have electricity in the water. If cut in direct contact with high voltage components, will have the potential risk of electric shock.

That it is not hard to understand why the accident of the firemen to put out the fire takes a long time. Is waiting for the battery pack will be fully heat clean, water temperature and cooling effect in addition to fire.

So domestic electric car owners should pay attention to what?

Generally use will not happen this problem, if similar to ordinary car open fire, so is something wrong with the battery management system.

If 4:26 caught fire, in the absence of effective extinguishing equipment, some is still far from the car.

And is not to say only18650 lithium batteries can catch fire, the possibility of any lithium battery is a fire, so don't think they open is not tesla and get away with.

The last in line with the safety warning, important words three times:

Dry powder fire extinguisher to the lithium battery fire is invalid!

Dry powder fire extinguisher to the lithium battery fire is invalid!

Dry powder fire extinguisher to the lithium battery fire is invalid!

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.